Happy Ever After
by alygator86
Summary: I got the idea after watching Patrick Dempsey on E! yesterday. He said There's no such thing as happy ever after…you have to work at it. So I took that and made it a fic.


Disclaimer: I don't own Grey's. I hope to soon own the season 3 soundtrack, though.

Rating: K

I got the idea after watching Patrick Dempsey on E! yesterday. He said There's no such thing as happy ever after…you have to work at it. So I took that and made it a fic.

Thanks so much to Kristi and Sara for helping me with this.

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Derek had just dropped off Rose at her place and was heading back to the trailer. The date had gone pretty well. Rose was...well everything Meredith isn't. And she was very happy. Derek was pulled out of his thoughts by the sudden appearance of lights coming in his direction. There was a loud crash then nothing.

There's no such thing as happy ever after.

Meredith was working the pit with an intern and it was pretty slow. She wished she had something to do. Derek went out on his date tonight and she didn't want to think about it. She needed something to do. She was actually thankful for the call saying there was an incoming.

She stood outside with her intern, another intern and Callie waiting for the ambulance.

"Finally some action," Callie said more to herself than the other doctors.

"Finally," Meredith agreed.

The ambulance pulled up and the paramedics jumped out. "37 year old male, car accident. He was unconscious at the scene and appears to have a broken arm."  
Meredith was ready to start when Callie, seeing who it was turned to Meredith.  
"Um, maybe you should get the other one."

"What? Why?" She asked, looking to see who was on the stretcher.   
Callie told someone else to page some other doctor. Meredith wasn't sure who because she wasn't listening.

As Callie and one of the interns wheeled Derek inside Meredith followed, beginning to hyperventilate.  
"Meredith, I need you to calm down," Callie told her, "take deep breaths and calm down because Derek is going to need you, ok?"  
Meredith nodded but didn't really listen.  
Callie grabbed Lexie, the closest person to her, and told her to take her to an empty trauma room.

Lexie took Meredith to the trauma room and Meredith blindly sat on the exam bed. Lexie turned on the oxygen mask and put it over Meredith's mouth.  
"Just breathe, he'll be ok," Lexie told her.  
"You don't know that," Meredith said, holding the oxygen mask there, "You don't know that he'll be ok!"

Lexie was going to say something else when Izzie came in.  
"Meredith, I heard, I'm so sorry."  
Izzie sat next to Meredith and put her arm around her. At having a friend near her she broke down. As she cried, Izzie was there. Izzie knew how Meredith felt and Meredith just needed to freak out.

There's no such thing as happy ever after.

About half an hour later, Meredith was laying in the still unused trauma room, on the exam bed. Izzie was sitting in a nearby chair. Callie came in and ignored Izzie but stood next to the bed.  
Meredith looked at her, "Good or bad, just tell me."  
"He has a broken arm, I put a cast on it and it will heal very nicely. He went for a CT and there's some slight swelling in his brain. Dr. Mayers says that it should go down on its own very soon and he'll wake up. Right now he's in his own room on ICU and you can go see him."

Meredith smiled slightly, "Thank you, Callie."  
"No problem. I talked with the chief and you have the next couple days off so take it easy."  
"Ok."  
Callie left and Meredith got up.  
"Do you want me to come with you?" Izzie asked.

"No," Meredith shook her head, "Go home, you must be tired."

There's no such thing as happy ever after.

Meredith stopped by the locker room to get changed then went to Derek's room. She stood in the doorway for a while, afraid to go in. He was hurt. The person she loved was hurt and she didn't know what to do. She was always the one getting hurt and he was there but now he was hurt. Taking a breath, she stepped into the room and made her way to his bed side. His left arm was in a blue cast and there was a white bandage on the upper right of his forehead. He was hooked up to a heart monitor and an IV.

Meredith started to hyperventilate again but quickly stopped herself. Derek needed her. That was really, really scary but she couldn't freak out. She had to be strong for him.

She pulled up a chair and sat next to his bed, just watching him.

There's no such thing as happy ever after.

"How is he?" Lexie asked from the doorway.

Meredith jumped at the break in silence.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare you," Lexie apologized.

"What are you doing here?" Meredith asked her, tiredly.

Lexie took a step into the room, "I came to see how he's doing, how you're doing."

"I'm fine," Meredith replied.

"Ok, fine," said Lexie, "I thought you might want to talk."

As Lexie turned to leave, Meredith called out to her to stop.

"I'm scared," she admitted to Lexie, "I've always been the one in the hospital bed and I've never done this before and I'm scared. I mean, what if he doesn't wake up? What if the swelling doesn't go down?"

Lexie moved to stand next to Meredith, "It's always hard to see someone you love in the hospital. And I always end up thinking about the worst case scenario but Derek is going to wake up."

"How do you know?" Meredith asked.

"Because he loves you too much not to," Lexie replied like the answer was obvious.

Meredith looked at her, "He went on a date tonight."

"I heard," Lexie nodded, "But that doesn't mean he doesn't love you. He feels like he has to try and move on. I really don't know why because he's crazy in love with you."

"He said things. Amazing things."

"What things?" Lexie asked.

"He wants to marry me and have kids with me and build a house with me and grow old with me," Meredith told her.

Lexie nodded, "He wants a lifetime with you."

"But I'm not ready for all of that," Meredith confided.

"I don't think anyone is," Lexie said, "But who said you have to have it all at once?"

Meredith looked back at Derek and Lexie was paged.

"I gotta go," she told Meredith, "I'll see you later."

"Thanks," Meredith said to Lexie's retreating form.

There's no such thing as happy ever after.

Meredith awoke in the chair disoriented by the beep of the heart monitor. Then it all came back to her. She stretched and stood up, looking to see how Derek was. After a trip to the bathroom she returned to her chair and dug around in her purse for her phone. There was a missed call from Cristina along with a voicemail that was probably from her. Meredith was more concerned with what time it was. It had taken her forever to fall asleep after thinking so much and when she did, she was so tired she sort of passed out. It was late then. Now it was a little after ten in the morning.

On her way to get some coffee she listened to the voicemail from Cristina just telling her that it sucked that McDreamy was in an accident and if she needed anything to call.

"Supportive Cristina, what a weird thought," Meredith thought out loud, coming back into Derek's room.

"I have to agree," came the tired sounding reply.

Meredith smiled, setting her coffee down and she stood next to Derek's bed. "Hey."

"Hey," he replied, "What happened?"

"You were in an accident," she told him, "You broke your arm but Callie said it will be fine and you hit your head."

"That explains the headache," he gave her a small smile.

"You've been out for about twelve hours. There was some swelling on the CT but it appears it went down," she told him, returning the smile.

"It appears so."

Meredith suddenly couldn't stop her thoughts from falling out of her mouth. "I want those things too."

"What?" he asked, confused at the sudden change in the conversation.

"The married and the kids and the house and the life together; I want those things too but I'm not ready for them all at once…but in steps I can handle them. Because losing you…I defiantly can't handle that."

He smiled at her, bigger than before and with is right hand, took her hand, "I can do that."

She looked at him for a time, just looking at him. "I love you," she told him.

"I love you, too," he replied McDreamily.

There's no such thing at happy ever after, you have to work at it.

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Hope you enjoyed. Please review.


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